mitigation
eklemetti | March 14, 2009Photo: The north flank of Mount Redoubt in early February 2009. Credit: Chris Waythomas / Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey
I've been following the waxing and waning of activity at Mt. Redoubt in Alaska for the past two months like many of you have. For a time there, the volcano had the nation's attention, both from the threat of a eruption near major shipping and oil hubs and from some questionable comments made by a certain Republican governor. However, nature sometimes doesn't play well with others, so after weeks of the Alaska Volcano Observatory's warnings that the…
sb admin | March 12, 2009
Welcome to version 2.0 of Eruptions, the blog on volcanic eruptions and volcano research in general. I've been writing this blog (starting over on Wordpress) over the last year or so, but now it has found a new home here at ScienceBlogs. If you're wondering what to expect if you're new to Eruptions, I'll be bringing news of volcanoes that are erupting worldwide, distilling the scientific jargon, dispelling the misinformation and commenting on what the effects of the eruption(s) might be. I'll also try to bring in any volcanoes in the popular media that gets my attention (alas, it has been…
eklemetti | March 11, 2009Photos by Dr. Edward Kohut, all rights reserved, used by permission, 2009
Many times people think that volcanic eruptions affect the economy through the destruction inflicted upon the landscape during an eruption: lahars and pyroclastic flows destroying bridges and homes, ash ruining crops and water, lava flows overunning communities. However, in Hawai'i, a new effect of volcanism has been seen in the agriculture of the state. The volcanic fog - or "vog" as its called - has been causing major problems with farms on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Since the new activity at Halemaumau (see above)…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
The people who remain in Chaiten face the potential for a devasting pyroclastic flow, so says Jorge Muñoz of the SERNAGEOMIN in Chile. The volcano is still producing large ash columns on Tuesday and a flyover of the dome forming inside the caldera has lead to the concern that a collapse on a larger scale than those seen last week could wipe out the town for good.
The government hopes news like this from volcanologists might convince the last remaining residents of Chaiten to leave, but no indication of this has come to pass. In fact, things sound like they're getting heated in the fight…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
So, there has been a lot of talk about "volcano monitoring" over the last 24 hours, now hasn't there?
Now, I'm not going to revisit this discussion, but as an example of why it might be important, there is an article today about the location of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines (near the potentially active caldera Natib). These are the sorts of issues that need to be dealt with in regards to volcano monitoring - the cascading effect of an eruption. During the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, there was a chance that volcaniclastic sediment from the eruption could have dammed…
illconsidered | February 21, 2009Michael Tobis has another well written and thought provoking essay on In It for the Gold asking if continuing developments in climatology are going to affect mitigation policy.
It can be argued that climatology is not an important input into climate change related policy. It is premature to take climatological input into account in adaptation strategy, while on the other hand as far as mitigation goes (i.e., on the global scale) the picture has pretty much stayed about the same for some substantial time.
That idea does not fit in very well with the common denialist refrain that climatologists…
eklemetti | February 20, 2009
Galeras, in Colombia, appears to have entered a new cycle of activity as it has erupted for the second time in a week. A large explosion occurred this morning that was accompanied by falling ash and rocks (ballistic bombs) from the event. It is unclear how far the volcanic products travelled from the vent, but Colombian officials did raise the alert level back to red and ordered new evacuations.
eklemetti | February 18, 2009
I found this little press release that doesn't have a huge amount of information, but is interesting nevertheless. The Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions of Japan (nice name) is putting seven volcanoes on "24/7" monitoring. That sounds like we might see a lot of eruptions in Japan soon ... except that their rationale was that these volcanoes "are likely to affect public life by erupting or becoming active in the coming 100 years". That is quite the window of eruptive opportunity! The question is what exactly "24/7" monitoring - does this mean that someone/something…
illconsidered | February 18, 2009In the climate debates, I hear it all the time: why should the US do anything when China and India are the fastest growing and largest emitters of greenhouse gases on the planet? Though I make it a personal policy to never discussion mitigation policies with characters who will not even accept the reality of the problem, the question does, on its own merits, deserve a thoughtful answer.
Clearly, climate disruption due to accumulating greenhouse gases is a global problem and requires a cooperative and global solution. We all share the same planetary atmosphere, and CO2 is a well mixed gas in…
eklemetti | February 15, 2009
UPDATE 2/15/2009 20:30 PM: Marta Calvache of INGEOMINAS says that seismicity has all but stopped at Galeras after the eruption Saturday night, however the area will be kept on alert for more potential activity. However, even with the eruption, apparently there are very few people in the evacuation centers - never a good sign if something really big were to happen at the restless Colombian volcano. Â
Last night, Galeras, near Pasto in Colombia, erupted, prompting an evacuation of nearly 7,000 people living near the volcano. The first CNN article linked above, for some reason, says that…
eklemetti | February 11, 2009The NASA Earth Observatory website posted this great image of Redoubt taken from Landsat images in 2000.
You can see a few neat things. The main thing I notice is that the Drift River Oil Terminal is in about the worst place you could put an oil terminal near a volcano like Redoubt. All the material from recent eruptions at Redoubt get focused down into the Drift River, which then heads off into the Cook Inlet via the Drift River flood plain (upper right hand side of the image). When this image was taken, the Drift River is still grey with volcanigenic material even 10 years after the last…
eklemetti | February 5, 2009
A week ago, if you asked around, I'm sure most people would have thought Redoubt would have erupted by now considering all the seismicity and melting that was seen at the end of last week. However, volcanology is not an exact science, and here we are continuing to watch Redoubt tease us with signs of pending activity. New holes have appeared in the snow that caps the volcano, the seismicity continues and the volcano is still spewing sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide - all signs that magma is intruding the volcanic edifice. However, as on this morning (2/5/2009), the volcano…
eklemetti | February 2, 2009
Mt. Asama near Tokyo did, in fact, erupt within the "two day" window predicted by the Meteorological Agency of Japan. The reports this morning put the ash column at ~2,000 meters (~6-7,000 feet), so relatively small, but big enough to dust parts of Tokyo (~145 km away) with ash. No evacuations are planned for the area around Asama, but people who live within 4 km of the volcano are to "take caution".Â
There are also new reports that Mt. Sakurajima in southern Japan erupted yesterday. Block were thrown up to a few kilometers from the volcano. The article suggests that ash spread as far as…
eklemetti | February 1, 2009
UPDATE 2/1/09 5:02 PM Pacific: Indeed, Asama did erupt today. The eruption was relatively small, throwing ballistic clasts up to 1 kilometer from the vent and ash into the outskirts of Tokyo.
Redoubt in Alaska has dominated the volcano news as of late, but it is clearly not the only volcano on Earth that is showing signs of eruption right now. The Meteorological Agency in Japan has just raises the alert level at Mt. Asama and warn that the volcano could erupt in the next "two days". Asama is ~150 kilometers from Tokyo and is very active (see above), having last erupted in September 2008. The…
eklemetti | January 31, 2009
The Anchorage Daily News has an excellent article today on the Drift River Oil Terminal, a depository for oil collected from the platforms in the Cook Inlet. This oil terminal stores at least 1,000,o00 barrels of oil (see article for why we're not sure) and sits, well, at the base of Redoubt (see map below from Anchorage Daily News) on the floodplain of the Drift River (~25 miles from the vent).Â
Now, this oil terminal was more-or-less destroyed during the last episode of volcanism at Redoubt twenty years ago when the terminal was wiped out by floods resulting from the eruptions. Not only…
eklemetti | January 30, 2009
I am surprised as anyone how the public has become captivated by this geologic drama unfolding at Redoubt. Headlines about the volcano are popping up everywhere from CNN to the MSNBC to Slashdot to Popular Science - yes, even the nerds are enthralled, which might be the reason that the AVO servers are overloaded today (and that Eruptions has set new records in visits each day for the last 4 days). The stories are pretty typical: everyone is preparing/panicking, the volcano might have a giant eruption, and so on. This is rapidly becoming the most eagerly anticipated (is that the right word…
eklemetti | January 27, 2009
Sorry for the headline, but this is a quick update to emphasize the media and their love of destruction. For example, Redoubt is, indeed, showing signs of a pending eruption, but how large of an eruption is anyone's guess. Most news sources have been fairly restrained with their headlines, such as:
Rumbling Volcano has Geologists on Alert (although oddly filed under "strange" news)
Attention Alaska Pilots - Alert Mt. Redoubt eruption may be Imminent (note that this one incorrectly says Redoubt is on "red" alert)
Inlet volcano Quieter but still Simmering
Alaskan Volcano Rumbling
You get the…
eklemetti | January 27, 2009
The Colombian government has extended the evacuations near Nevado del Huila, taking 800 families out of the danger zone near the rumbling volcano. Huila has been making a lot of noise as of late, and Colombian officials in Ingeominas and the National System for Emergencies are worried that the volcano will erupt soon, sending avalanches and lahars down the valleys of the Paez and Simbola Rivers as happened in November of 2008 (see above or the link to the Volcanism Blog). They also note that Ingeominas is installing microphones on the volcano to detect explosions in the crater to better…
eklemetti | January 21, 2009
I wouldn't normally use this blog for something like this, but google has failed me. When I was in New Zealand, I saw a video on the 1995-96 eruptions at Ruapehu titled Witness to Eruption made in, I believe, 1999. It had some excellent footage of the eruptions in the 1990s as well as the 1950s, along with some great examples of interactions between the populations/businesses near the volcano and the eruption (namely the ski areas). I assumed I could get back to the states and look up the video on google to buy a copy, but no luck! Does anyone have any knowledge about where I could find this…
eklemetti | January 20, 2009
Nevado del Huila continues to cause problems in Colombia. Over 4,000 people had to be evacuated today from the Belalcazar area after the volcano showed new signs of eruption. No description is given to exactly what those signs were/are, however after the lahars in November (2008), it sounds like the Colombian government is not taking chances. Huila has been rumbling for almost two years now after almost 450 years on silence (that we know of) at the volcano.